Shook feeding device



May 17, 1938. A. l. OBERMILLER SHOOK FEEDING DEVICE Filed Feb. l, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 17, 1938. A. l. OBERMILLER f 2,117,906

SHOCK FEEDING DEVICE Filed Feb. l, 1937 .5 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 17, 1938. A. l. OBERMILLER SHOCK FEEDINCT DEVICE Filed Feb. 1, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 um m Q m, @MN Q ATTORNEY. v

Patented May 17, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHOOK FEEDIN G DEVICE Application February 1,`

12 Claims.

This invention relates to a machine for gathering together groups of relatively thin flat elements and has particular utility in the box making art. The invention represents an improvement upon the machine disclosed in U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,089,918 granted Aug. 10, 1937, upon an application of Gerald C. Paxton, et al.

Machines of the type to which this invention relates are employed for feeding the flat pieces of Wood known as shook to automatic box making machines which assemble this shook in iinished shipping boxes. The machine of this type disclosed in the aforesaid copending application is designed particularly for feeding to the box making machine the slats for forming the sides and the bottom of the box. This machine provided six magazines each containing a stack of slats to be ejected one at a time from the bottom of the stack in assembling a group of six slats from the six stacks in the same order in which the latter are disposed in the magazines, these groups being assembled and delivered to the box making machine at a sufficient rate to keep the latter in operation.

In order for a machine of this type to be entirely satisfactory it must accomplish the feeding of slats as above described. The stack of slats in each of these magazines is supported at the lower end of the magazine by rests and a discharge mouth is provided for each magazine through Which the lowermost slat may be stripped from the rest of the stack by the slat assembling mechanism. There is a tendency of certain kinds of shook, and particularly that made of spruce Wood, to bridge or bind against the side Walls of the magazine so that the lowermost piece of shook is held up out of alignment with the discharge mouth through which it must pass in being stripped from the bottom of the stack. 40 Whenever this bridging occurs it interferes with the proper assembling of the groups of slats by the machine so that it cannot perform its intended function.

It is an object of this invention to substantially prevent the occurrence of the bridging aforementioned so that the proper functioning of such a machine may not under any circumstances be interrupted from this cause.

The machine discussed above not only assembles the slats in a predetermined order in groups, but delivers these groups to a depository or magazine from which the group of slats may be fed to the box making machine in which they are to be assembled into boxes. As pointed out in the copending application above noted, the

1937, Serial No. 123,410

machine disclosed therein is especially adapted to be associated with the automatic box making machine illustrated and described in U. S. Letters Patent No'. 1,844,333, issued February 9, 1932, to E. C. Northrup. I have found that the slat 5 picks on this Northrup machine aremuch more certain of stripping slats from the bottom of this group depository if all the slats disposed therein are flushed against the forward wall thereof Which is disposed in the direction toward Which 10 the slats are stripped from the bottom end of this depository. As the slats for forming the bottom of the box assembled by this Northrup machine are Wider than the slats for forming the sides of the box, each of the groups of slats afore- 15 mentioned contain bottom slats which are Wider than the side slats in the group. Hitherto all of the slats in the group delivered to this depository have been flushed with the rear face or wall of the depository as this was the convenient thing 20 to do.

It is an object of this invention to provide in a machine of the type above referred to a mechanism for automatically flushing all of the slats and particularly the narrower slats in a group delivered to a depository, With the Wall of the latter disposed in the direction toward which the slats are stripped from the lower end of the depository.

One of the difculties previously encountered in the operation of shook feeding machines of the 30 general type above referred to, results from the fact that occasionally certain pieces of the shook placed in the magazines of the machine are Warped so that opposite longitudinal edges of the shook are disposed above the middle portion 35 thereof. When a piece of shook warped in this manner reaches the bottom of a magazine, the leading longitudinal edge of this piece of shook tends to incline upwardly opposite the gauge means located above the discharge mouth at the 4,0 bottom of said magazine so that when the ejector of the machine engages this lowermost piece of shook the forward edge of the latter is forced against the gauge means, thus blocking the removal of this piece of shook from the magazine. 45

It is yet another object of my invention, therefore, to provide a shook feeding machine of the type above noted Which will handle shook, including pieces which are warped as mentioned, but in Which such pieces Will be properly fed from the machine When engaged by the ejector of the shook selector.

In ejecting shook from a shook feeding device, it is of particular importance that the ejector 55 operate with precision in engaging the lowermost piece in each magazine.

It is therefore another object of my invention to provide such a machine having a shook ejecting means which has a comparatively high degree of precision in engaging the shook to be ejected.

The manner of accomplishing the vforegoing objects, as well as further objects and advantages, will be made manifest in the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a cross sectional view of the preferred embodiment of my invention as incorporated in a machine of the type shown in the aforesaid copending application.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary operation View taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary operation View taken on the line 4--4 of Fig. 2, certain of the mechanism which would be visible on this line being omitted to avoid complication of the view.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view of the righthand end of Fig. 4:.Y

Fig, 6 is a diagrammatic fragmentary operation view at an enlarged scale showing the manner in which 'slat flushing mechanism is not actuated by the ejector carriage during a slat gathering movement of this carriage.

Fig. "1 is an enlarged diagrammatic/detail sectional view taken on the line '|-1 of Fig. 4 and illustrating the construction of the slat flushing mechanism operating slat cam.

Referring specifically tothe drawings, the preferred embodiment there shown incorporated in a shook feeding device I5 which includes a base frame 20, a magazine unit 2| and a depository 22 (see Fig. l). The unit includes longitudinal angle iron frame members having legs 26 which rest upon the floor and support the rear end of the machine; At their rear ends the members 25 are held in spaced relation by suitable bracing 20 on the legs 25 while at their front ends they are held in spaced relation by a transverse bar 29.

Rotatable on 'stub shafts 38 provided on the angle iron members 25 are double sprockets 30, eachV of which includes individual sprockets 40 and 4|. A suitable power means (not shown) is provided on the frame 20 and is connected through chains 42 with the sprockets 40; Adjustably mounted on the angle -iron frame members 25 at their rearmost extremities are stub shafts 45 rotatably carrying sprockets 46. The sprockets 46 are in radial alignment with the sprockets 4| and endless chains 41 are trained about these sprockets. Supported on the angle iron members 25 by spacers 50 are rails 5| which support the upper flights of the chains 41, the lower flights thereof being supported on rails 52, the latter being suspended from rails 5| by blocks 53. The ends of the frame members 25 adjacent the connecting bar 29 are supported on arms 55 which are fastened onto a nailing machine (not shown) with which the shook feeding device i5 is adapted to be associated.

Provided on corresponding opposite links of the chains 41 is a pair of pins 60 upon which is pivotally mounted a hollow shaft 5 the latter having sleeves 62 rigidly fixed thereon.

Slidably mounted on the horizontal flanges of the angle iron members 25 is an ejector carriage 65 including slide runners 65, a channel iron Ybar 61 and shafts 68 and 69 connecting said runners.

Forks 12 have their bifurcated ends pivoted on the shaft 69. Pins 13 of these forks extend through the collars 62 on the shaft 6| and are adjustably secured therein by nuts 14.

Pivotally mounted on shaft 68 are bearing sleeves 16 carrying ejectors 11l Each of these ejectors is positioned laterally by collars 18 on the shaft 68 and has arms 19 which are connected by a bridge 30 and rotatably support rollers 8| and 82 between their forward ends. Each of the arms 19 is provided on its forward end with an ejector face plate 83.

Pivotally mounted within each of the forks 12 is a head of a threaded pin 85, this pin extending upwardly through an aperture in the bridge 80 of the ejector 11 disposed immediately thereabove and having lock nuts 36 on its upper end. Coiled about each of the pins 85 between its head and the bridge 80 is an extension spring 81 which yieldably supports the ejector 11 engaged thereby so as to keep the bridge 30 in contact with the nuts 86.

|The magazine unit 2| is supported on legs 90 and 9| which are fixed on the angle iron members 25 and extend upwardly therefrom to be connected at their upper ends by shafts S2 and 93 respectively. Fixed on the shafts 92 and 93 are upright members 94 and 95, these members being connected by supporting shafts 91 at their lower ends andV rods 98 at their upper ends. As seen in Fig. 5, the shafts 91 and rods 98 extend along opposite sides of the machine. Each of the uprights 95 has a shook stop shoulder 99 (seeFig. l) the purpose of which will be made manifest hereinafter.

Slidable on the shafts 91 are mounting sleeves |05 of a series of partition supporting brackets |06. Each of these sleeves has a set screw |01 for fixing its position on the shaft 91 which supports it. Each bracket |96 (see Fig. l) includes a stop support lug |08 which is fixed thereto and extends slightly outwardly and upwardly therefrom and is apertured for receiving screws to x a stop plate |09 thereto when it'is desired to do so. The sleeve '|05 of each bracket also has an arm I 0 which extends inwardly and slightly upwardly therefrom, this terminating in a partition standard Adjustably secured to the lower ends of the standards are rests |20 which extend beneath the spaces in advance of the brackets |06 on which they are supported.

Placed over each of the partition standards is a hollow sheet metal partition |25 which is secured in place by screws |26 extending through the partition and into suitable threaded holes provided in the standards i l, As will be seen in Fig. 5, the partitions E25 are wedge shaped at their opposite ends. Each of the partitions |25 is apertured to slidably receive the rods 98 on that side of the machine.

As shown in Figs. l, 3 and 5, each adjacent pair of partitions |25 and the rests |20 which project into the space between these partitions cooperate to form magazine compartments for shook, or other similar fiat elements. When the machine is used for gathering shook, the necessary width of each of these magazine compartments is procured by adjusting the brackets |06 longitudinally on the shafts 91. These compartments, of course, must be of suitable size to closely accommodate the differently dimensioned pieces of shook which go together to make up the groups into which all the shook is to be divided. For instance, the preferred embodiment illustrated herein is adjusted to form successive groups of shook like the group indicated by the letter A in Fig. 4. Each of these groups comprises: two relatively wide pieces of shook which lie on the bottom of the group and four rela-4 tively narrow pieces of shook which normally lie upon the top of the group. The six compartments provided in the machine I5, therefore, are adjusted to receive large supplies of pieces of shook of these six kinds in the same order these appear in group A, The rest members 20 are of different lengths, this length differing in accordance with the width of shook to be received by the magazine compartments disposed over these particular rests |20. This is not essential, however, as the rest members |20 may extend quite a distance under the next rest member |20 disposed in advance thereof in order to effect the formation of a magazine compartment of desired width thereabove.

It is to be noted in Fig. 3 that the butt end |22 of each rest |20 forms a gauge member which cooperates with the forward tip of the rest |20 disposed immediately rearward thereof to provide a discharge opening or mouth M. This mouth may be regulated in depth by the adjustment of the rest |20 on the lower ends of the standards The mouths M are, of course, of just sufficient depth to permit a single piece of shook in a magazine thereabove to be ejected through this mouth yet narrow enough to prevent a second piece of shook to be ejected at the same time. As also shown` in Fig. 3, the rearwardly disposed face of each of the support butts l22 is inclined relative to the vertical with a substantial undercut angle. In the preferred embodiment illustrated, this angle is shown as approximately 12. It is also to be noted that the shook supports |20 are preferably inclined downwardly at a substantial angle with the horizontal, the latter angle in the drawings being shown as approximately '730. It is thus seen that the angle between the upper faces of the shook supports |20 of each of the shook magazines makes an angle with rear faces of the support butts |22, forming gauge members for said magazine, of approximately 70".

It isto be noted that the rests |20 are disposed directly over and in alignment with the rollers 8| and 82 of the ejectors 11. Supported on the ends of arms |30 extending downwardly from the shaft 92 and arms |3| extending upwardly from the bar |29, is a pair of angle iron tracks |32 which terminate at the depository 22. Pivotally mounted on shaft 93 and extending forwardly therefrom is an arm |38, the forward en'd of which is adapted to rest upon shook in the depository 22, there being a sector member |39 extending upwardly from the forward extremity of the arm |38. Provided on the member |39 are laterally extending lugs |40 and |4|. Pivotally supported on the forward wall |45 of the depository 22 are mercury rocker switches |50 and |5| (see Fig. 5).

The machine I5 is adapted to be charged with shook from either side thereof depending upon which end of the magazine the stop plates |09 are attached to the lugs |08 of the brackets |00, these stops being placed, of course, upon the opposite side of the machine from which it is desired to feed the magazines.

The preceding portion of the description of the automatic shook feeding device l5 relates to the device as disclosed in the aforesaid copending application. The improvements embraced in the present invention include a slat freeing mechanism |60 and a slat seating mechanism IBI.

The slat freeing mechanism |00 includes a-pair of slat drags |05, each of which has a base bar |06 secured by a bolt |01 to the channel irons 61 and by a clamp |68, formed on its opposite end, to the shaft 09. Extending up from the rear end of each of the base bars |00 is an arm |10 on the upper end of which is pivotally mounted the rear end of a drag arm |1|, the forward end of each of these arms having an upwardly extending drag cam face |12 and a roller |13 rotatably mounted thereon so that its rear face conforms substantially with the cam face |12. Pivoted on each arm |1| near its forward end is the upper end of a rod |11, this rod extending downwardly through a suitable aperture in the base bar |50, having lock nuts |18 on its lower end, and a collar |19 which traps a spring |80 between this collar and the bar |06 so as to constantly maintain a yieldable upward force tending to support the drag arm |1| in upwardmost position in which it is shown in Fig. 3. When the arms |1| are thus elevated the drag cam faces |12 are located above the upper extremities of the mouth M.

The slat seating mechanism |0| includes upwardly extending arms and |85 provided on the arm |38, the arm |85 carrying a stop pin |81 and the arm |30` pivotally carrying a slat flushing lever E88. The lower front end of the lever |08 has a slat fiushing face |89. Also xed on the arm |38 is a collar |90 carrying a pin |9| on which is pivotally mounted an actuating lever |92, to the upper end of which is pivoted a sleeve |93 through which a rod |94 is sliclably disposed, this rod carrying lock nuts |95 on its rear end and collars and |91. As shown in Fig. 4, a coil spring |90 surrounds rod |94 between the collar |93 and the collar |90. The forward end of rod |94 pivotally connects to the flushing lever |88 substantially midway between its ends. Connecting sleeve |90 and set collar |91 is a contractile spring 200. the lower end of the lever |92 is a trap cam 202 which normally gravitates downwardly against a stop 203 but which is free to lswing forwardly about the pin 20|. Mounted centrally on the channel irons 01 is a cam actuator 205 having `rollers 200 on its upper end and a recoil cam 201 extending forwardly and downwardly therefrom as shown in Fig. 4.

Operation The first step of the operation is to charge the machine |5 with shook with the proper face upwardly in each instance and with the shook in proper end to end relation. The power unit is now set in operation which operates the chains 42 to rotate the double sprockets 39 at exactly the same speed and so as to cause chains 41 to rotate continually in the direction indicated by the arrows adjacent these chains` in the several views. As the electric switch |50 tends to rotate in a clockwise direction by gravity so as to throw it out and as it does this whenever it is released from pressure of the pin |40 as shown in Fig. 4, and asV this switch is included in the circuit for energizing a magnetic switch for maintaining in operation the power unit which drives the chains 41, the latter chains cease movement immediately when the pin |40 is. raised out of contact with the switch |50 as shown in Figs. 1 and 4. As the groups of slats A are removed from the bottom of the depository 22 the arm |38 gravi- Pivoted from a pin 20| on tates downwardly with the stack of these groups in the depository thus bringing the pin |40 against the switch |50 and rocking this into closed position and thereby starting the chains 41 again in motion. When this occurs the ejector carriage 65 is drawn rearwardly by the rods 13, this bringing the rollers 206 intocontact with the trap cam 202 so as to rotate the lever |92 the full line position in which it is shown in Fig. 4 to its broken line position in this figure.

The effect of this is to move the rod |94 forwardly and rock the flusher lever |88 downwardly to bring the face |89 thereof against the four uppermost pieces of shook in the depository 22 which, as already described, comprise the four narrower pieces of shook of the uppermost group A deposited in the depository. Being thus narrower than the fore and aft dimensions of the depository these uppermost pieces of shook respond to this contact with the flushing face |89 and are shifted forwardly into flush Contact with the forward wall |45 of the depository 22 as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 4. While this flushing action takes place after the uppermost group A of slats has dropped downwardly far enough for the pin |40 to engage the switch |50 as just described, it is for convenience sake shown in broken line in Fig. 4 as taking place before this lowering of the uppermost group of slats.

During the forward movement of the ejector carriage 65 the cam actuator 205 passes idly beneath the trap cam 202 as shown in Fig. 6, the cam 202 swinging forward about its pivot pin 20| and then gravitating backwardly into its dotted line position in this figure in readiness for engagement by the actuator 205 on its return movement as before described.

During the return travel of the ejector carriage 65 the drag cam faces |73 on the shook drag arms are brought into contact with the lowermost pieces of shook in the magazines of the machine as shown in Fig. 3. 'I'he result of this in each instance is to dislodge the lowermost piece of shook in each magazine from any possible bridging friction which would hold this piece of shook out of alignment with the mouth M of its particular magazine compartment. Thus the lowermost piece of shook in the right-hand compartment illustrated in Fig. 3 is seen to have been shifted to the left and thus permitted to drop down in alignment with the mouth M of the compartment in which it is disposed. The same action is now taking place against the lowermost piece of shook in the second compartment from the right. The bridging situation which this mechanism is designed to overcome is illustrated in the leftwardmost compartment shown in Fig. 3.

As before stated, the flushing of all pieces of shook in the depository 22 against the wall |45 is necessary to assure the proper feeding of the slats through the mouth MM provided at the lower end of this depository beneath the lower end of the wall |45. For an illustration of a f suitable means for feeding the shook from the lower end of the depository 22 reference is had to the Northrup patent identified hereinabove.

While in the normal operation of the machine I5 the shook placed in the magazines is flat, ocn casionally this shook will include a piece which is warped so that the front and rear side edges thereof incline upwardly causing one of these edges to be raised until opposite the shook support butts acting as gauge members for the magazine containing this piece of shook. When this happens, the action of the shook drag arms does not overcome the bridging relation of the forward side edge of this warped piece of shook and the gauge members opposite which said edge is located. Thus, when the rear side edge of this piece of shook is engaged by the ejector 11, this warped piece of shook is moved forwardly with considerable force against the inclined rear faces of the support butts |22 acting as gauge members for the particular magazine containing this piece of shook. The angle at which these gauge member faces are disposed relative to the shook supports |20 on which this warped piece of shook is supported, causes this piece of shook to be cammed downwardly into the shook discharging mouth A of this magazine and thus permit this piece of shook to respond to the ejectors and be slid edgewise from the magazine through the mouth A thereof.

While an angle of approximately '70 is shown in the drawings as preferable between the upper faces of shook supports of each magazine and the rearwardly inclined faces of support butts |22 forming gauge members for said magazine, it is of course to be understood that this angle may be varied somewhat to cause it to be most effective with different kinds of materials and still function in the manner above described to cause a discharge of the warped piece of shook which is arched so badly that the leading edge of this piece of shook is turned upwardly opposite the rearwardly disposed faces of these support butts.

What I claim is:

1. In combination: a plurality of magazines for flat elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being narrower across their longitudinal axes than the elements in the balance of said magazines; a depository for groups of said elements, said depository having a front wall under which said elements are adapted to be ejected sideeedgewise; gathering mechanism for assembling groups of said elements from said magazines and depositing said groups successively in said depository; and means for seating said narrower elements in each such group with a longitudinal edge of each of said narrower elements in contact with said front wall.

2. In combination: av plurality of magazines for at elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being'narrower than those in the other magazines; a depository for groups of said elements; a reciprocating gathering mechanism for successively ejecting elements from said magazines during the movement of said mechanism in a given direction to assemble a group of said elements, said mechanism then depositing said group in said depository; and means actuated by the return movement of said gathering mechanism for causing the narrower of the aforesaid elements in said group just delivered to said depository to be seated against a wall of said depository on the opposite side thereof from the direction of said ejecting` movement of said mechanism.

3. In combination: a plurality of magazines for :dat elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being narrower across their longitudinal axes than the elements in the balance of said magazines; a depository for groups of said elements, said depository having a front wall under which said elements are adapted to be ejected side-edgewise; gathering mechanism for assembling groups of said elements from said magazines and depositing said groups successively in said depository; and means actuated by said gathering means for seating said narrower elements in each such group with a longitudinal edge of each of said narrower elements in contact with said front wall.

4. In combination: a plurality of magazines for fiat elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being narrower thanv those in the other magazines; a depository for groups of said elements; gathering mechanism for assembling groups of said elements from said magazines and depositing said groups successively in said depository; and means actuated by said gathering mechanism immediately following the assembling and delivery of a group of elements to said depository for seating the narrower of the elements in said group against a wall of said depository on the opposite side thereof from the direction from which said group was delivered to said depository.

5. In combination: a plurality of magazines for Bat elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being narrower across their longitudinal axes than the elements in the balance of said magazines; a depository for groups of said elements, said depository having a front wall under which said elements are adapted to be ejected side-edgewise; gathering mechanism for assembling groups of said elements from said magazines and depositing said groups successively in said depository; and means for seating said narrower elements in each such group, which are disposed on the top of the wider elements in each such group, with a longitudinal edge of each of such narrower elements in contact with said front wall.

6. In combination: a plurality of magazines for holding flat elements, said elements in certain of said magazines being narrower than those in the other magazines; a depository adapted for receiving groups of said elements; gathering mechanism for assembling groups of said elements from said magazines and delivering said groups successively into said depository; an arm having a free end which rests upon the top of the uppermost group of elements in said depository, said arm yielding upwardly to receive each groupof elements delivered by said gathering mechanism into said depository; and means provided on said arm and automatically operative to seat certain narrower of said elements in each group thereof against a wall of said depository on the opposite side thereof from the direction from which said group is delivered to said depository.

7. A combination as in claim 6 in which the means last recited therein comprises a flushing mechanism which is operated by the element gathering mechanism in the'interim between element group gathering operations.

8. In a device for feeding flat elements one at a time, the combination of: means forming a magazine to hold a stack of said flat elements; support means upon which the lowermost of said elements is adapted to rest so as to support said stack in said magazine, there being a free space along one side of said magazine, adjacent said support means and in edgewise adjustment with the lowermost element in said stack, said space comprising a discharge mouth for said magazine; gauge means provided on said magazine just above said mouth, said gauge means having a rear face which is adapted to obstruct movement of the next to the lowermost element in said stack in the direction of said mouth when the lowermost of such elements is being disvEi charged through said mouth, said face of said gauge means being disposed at an acute angle which is substantially less than a right-angle relative to the upwardly disposed surface of said support means; and means for engaging and eject- `ing the lowermost element of said stack edgewise through said mouth and out of said magazine, the

Aaforesaid angle being suiicient, when said lowermost element is warped to elevate its forward edge opposite said gauge means, to shift said warped element downwardly into saidrmouth when said element is moved edgewise towards said mouth by said ejecting means, but insufrlcient to wedge the next to the lowermost element downward to an extent which would interfere with the ejectio-n of the lowermost element.

9. In a device for feeding at elements one at a time, the combination of: means forming a magazine to hold a stack of said flat elements; support means upon which the lowermost of said elements is adapted to rest so as to support said stack in said magazine, there being a free space along one side of said magazine, adjacent said support means and in edgewise alinement with the lowermost element in said stack, said space comprising a discharge mouth for said magazine; gauge means provided on said magazihe just above said mouth, said gauge means having a rear face which is adapted to obstruct movement of the next to the lowermost element in said stack in the direction of said mouth when the lowermost of such elements is being discharged through said mouth, said face of said gauge means being disposed at an angle of approximately relative to the supporting surfaces of said support means; and means for ejecting the lowermost element of said stack from said magazine by engaging said element and propelling the latter edgewise through said mouth.

10. In combination: a plurality of magazines for' flat elements; said magazines having mouths at their lower ends through which the lowermostJ element in each magazine is adapted to be moved edgewise; a reciprocating carriage; guide means for guiding said carriage along a given path beneath said magazines; ejector means mounted" on said carriage and adapted to eject the lowermost element from each of said magazines while traveling in one direction beneath the latter on said carriage; and means for lowering said ejector means into inoperative position on its return movement with said carriage.

11. In combination: a plurality of magazines for flat elements; said magazines having mouths at their lower ends through which the lowermost element in each magazine is adapted to be moved edgewise; a reciprocating carriage; guide means for guiding said carriage along a given path beneath said magazines; ejector means mounted on said carriage and adapted to eject the lowermost element from each of said magazines while traveling in one direction beneath the latter on said carriage; endless chain means for imparting said reciprocatory movement to said carriage; and means actuated by said endless chain means for lowering said ejector means out of operative relation with said flat elements during the return movement of said carriage, said means returning said ejector means to ejectin-g position upon the beginning of an ejecting movement of said carrier.

12. In combination; a plurality of magazines for at elements; said magazines having mouths at their lower ends through which the lowermost element in each magazine is adapted to be moved edgewise; a reciprocating carriage; guide means for guiding said carriage along a given path beneath said magazines; ejector means mounted on said carriage and adapted to eject the lowermost element from each of said magazines While traveling in one direction beneath the latter on said carriage; endless chain means for transmitting said reciprocatory movement to said oarrier; links connecting saidV chain means to said carrier; and means actuated by said chain means through said links for elevating said ejector means at the beginning of an e'jecting movement of said carriage and lowering said ejector means at the beginning of a return movement of said carriage.

ALBERT I. OBERMILLER. 

